The U14 Gia Lai International Football Festival – 2026 started on May 11. Group A includes the youth teams of Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL), Jubilo Iwata (Japan), Mohyeon FC (Korea) and Truong Tuoi Dong Nai. Group B includes Song Lam Nghe An, U14 Malaysia, Gangwon State All Stars (Korea) and Khamsay FC (Laos). Meanwhile, Group C gathers the teams CFA Shenzhen Academy (China), Chonburi FC (Thailand), PVF and Hanoi FC.
The festival is co-organized by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Gia Lai province and Hoang Anh Gia Lai Sports Joint Stock Company, taking place from May 11 to 15. This is one of the tournaments in the series of cultural, sports, and tourism events of the National Tourism Year - Gia Lai 2026 to contribute to promoting the image of people and cultural identity of Gia Lai to international friends.
In addition, the Festival is organized on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Bau Duc's establishment of Hoang Anh Gia Lai - JMG football academy. This is one of the prestigious football academies, creating a reputation for training quality, when initially linked with Arsenal club and JMG global football academy.
Over more than 20 years of development, the football academy founded by Bau Duc has trained many bright talents who have made many contributions to Vietnamese football, especially players of Course I and II such as Cong Phuong, Tuan Anh, Xuan Truong, Van Thanh, Van Toan, Minh Vuong, Dong Trieu...
Bau Duc's football training academy "scores points" with fans thanks to developing players comprehensively, from expertise to ethics and education. Bau Duc's dedication to the king sport is also the reason that motivates many bosses and localities to invest in and develop youth football.
After 20 years, Bau Duc continues to spread his love for youth football when organizing the U14 Gia Lai International Football Festival – 2026, attracting the participation of 7 international teams, including highly rated representatives from Japan, Korea, and Thailand.
To prepare for this tournament, the teams have all prepared seriously and thoughtfully and sent the best forces to participate. They see this as a good opportunity for young players to accumulate experience, learn from each other to develop, improve themselves, and continue to nurture the dream of becoming professional players.
Many young football experts both at home and abroad came to Pleiku stadium this time to watch the tournament. For them, this is a good opportunity to assess the ability of the team, of each player. On the Malaysian side, the technical director of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) Ong Kim Swee personally flew to Gia Lai to directly watch the players play.
The Gia Lai U14 International Football Festival – 2026 also received great attention and support from the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF), in the context that Vietnamese youth football has achieved many successes at all levels over the past time.
Bau Duc and VFF leaders have high expectations for this tournament, considering it a place to connect and create an important premise for players to have the opportunity to show and break through in the future.
